Cute Little Block Head

He loves blocks.

He thinks they taste good.

He LOVES to knock them over-he thinks it's hysterical to knock over anything Topher and Bekah build.

Luckily so do they...most of the time.

These have absolutely got to be his most favorite toy right now.

He usually has one in his hand or mouth at all times.

He's my block head.

Cute little block head.

Men at Work plus one tough Chica

These 3 hotties were out all day yesterday starting the long process of building a fence in the Appah's backyard to keep their little escapee confined. Chad and Jason were using this big contraption to dig holes for the posts, and when April and I saw them and all their rippling muscles doing manual labor, we thought it was pretty hot and had to get out our cameras. But what's hotter than our 2 hubbies sweatin and working in the sun?
When they can't get the thing out of the ground and ask for this tough chica's help. Beauty and Brawn-the whole package!
I hope we can still be friends after she see's this post-hee hee! Love ya April!

Spaghetti Pop!

Some of my favorite pictures of all my babies are their spaghetti face pictures. No different for this kidd-o.I think it just makes their gorgeous blues eyes just POP in these pictures (thanks Chad-I married you so that you could pass those beautiful eye genes on) .

Did I mention that his favorite new thing to say is "Hey!", it is really funny and when we say it back, he thinks he's the man-he gets a huge grin on his face....like this.

Seriously.

This is one cute kid.

Pat on the back for me and my baby bakin skills!

And I guess I can give props to Chad for that eye gene thing.

Dang-he's cute!

Backyard Surprises

It is no secret that we love having our HUGE backyard.
There are lots of fun spring time 'surprises' right now-like the apple blossoms... ...and the visiting birds.This is not a story about them though, this is a sappy story and life lesson I learned that I don't want to forget.
The other day, Bekah wanted to have me come outside and see the surprise she found in our backyard. I was busy doing something, but she didn't let me forget about it all day-so when I finally had a chance to go out...
....she took off on a dead run towards the back of the yard where one of the apple trees is. She started twirling all around and said, "Isn't it beautiful!?! It's like our own flower garden!" There were dandelions everywhere. She knows that they are weeds and she was quick to point that out, but she said "it looks like a flower garden, right?"

Of course it did, and it made me want to be more child like and instead of griping about the overabundance of dandelions and other weeds in our yard to see the absolute and pure beauty in things the way she does.

As I stepped back and watched my beautiful and wise daughter twirling in the weeds like she was in her own magical secret garden I was overfilled with crazy love for her and her brothers.

For the last few days I had been pondering if it would be worth it to go back to work, I haven't worked for the last year since we moved here. I worked for the last 3 years from home as an apartment manager, and even though it was working from home, it was still work-and I was not a full time stay at home mom like I am now. I just didn't have all the time I have now to give my undivided attention to my babies.

There are times, I think it would be easier to go to work and have a life outside of my mommy bubble. There are more days than not that I think how much easier it would be financially to have an extra income.

Then I stepped back and looked at the bigger picture, I could see clearly that my children have beautified my life, and this last year I have really got to spend a lot of time with them and really get to know the little people they are, and you know what I discovered? They are really cool kids, I genuinely like them and I am so grateful to have them, every moment of every day.

Lesson learned.

I need to be at home with my kids right now, no matter how tight money is.

The grass may be greener on the other side of the fence, but I prefer mine covered in dandelions.

That's more like it

This sweet boy got another tooth in today, and has a couple more in the works-he has not been a happy camper or napper for that reason.
SO when he fell asleep in the swing today, it took all I had to not just leave him there and let him sleep. Christopher kept messing with the swing though so I had to move him, and sure enough-he woke up as soon as I unbuckled him. He is doing better tonight, so I might bring him to book club... where we will be eating this...

I couldn't just forget how un-pretty that last cake looked, so I had to make it again. Much better.

Random Friday (on Thursday) Special K-ookie Recipe

These cookies are good for you-I mean it. 2 of the main ingredients are Special K and oatmeal, so they have to be right? It totally cancels out the butter and sugars for sure! This is my sister in law Stef's recipe that she gave me years ago. Since then-many people, maybe even you, have loved and enjoyed these little yummy morsels.
Just FYI the dough is even better than the cookies for those of you who like dough like me!

• 2 sticks butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• MIX AND CREAM WELL
• SIFT DRY INGREDIENTS
• 2 c flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• MIX THAT IN
• 1 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1 1/2 cup Special K cereal (it adds this crunch that makes them yummmazing!)
• chocolate chips
• BAKE AT 400 FOR 8 MINUTES, IF THE DOUGH IS NOT GONE.

At the Carwash

It's warm enough again to handwash the car-Chad's and the kids most favorite thing to do. Porter and I stayed dry just kickin it in the backyard while everyone else got soaked.
Good times.

Sweet 16 and Never been...oh who are we kidding?

My kid brother turned 16 yesterday-I'm not his mama and I still feel like that kid has just grown up way too fast! He has been living with us for the last few months and he has been (for the most part, there have been some teenager pms temper tantrums that I could live without) such a blast to have around!
He was more than willing to wear his birthday get-up I got for him that also included a grass skirt that you can't see.

Pictured here: Me, the birthday boy and a couple of the Appah boys-Jason and Parker. Tyler had just announced in his best King Julian impersonation-"Look at me, I'm a lady-which of you is attracted to me?" We were his response.

And this is for my mom-since she wasn't here to see him blow out his candles...Happy Birthday Tyler!
Note: On that pile of glob that is supposed to be his cake...don't knock it till you try it! It was probably the most delicious cake the world has ever known-even if it did turn out ugly!

It was a 3 layer german chocolate cake (that the sides were crumbly because of wax paper) with coconut and toffee frosting (he didn't want pecans-oh it was good! But it was pretty thin, so it didn't solve the crumbly side problem and just ran off the cake into a puddle around it) and a chocolate and sweetened condensed milk topping (which on top of the already drooping cake just made it look like a molten cake or something-whatev, it was divine!.

Stuff

Coming downstairs in this dress-up dress (obviously quite huge)...

Bekah: When I wear this dress you can see all sorts of stuff.
Me: What sort of stuff?
Bekah: (She turns around in a circle and shows me her back and says)
This sort of stuff!
I'm like a real princess huh?

Me: (In my head)Dang those hussy Disney Princesses!

Spring Sweeties!

My favorite Easter tradition-new Easter church clothes!

Mandatory

Dying the eggs the night before mandatory photo's. The mandatory cute kids taking a look at what mischief that Easter Bunny had been up to-hiding eggs and toys all over the house-the funny thing is in the pictures of the 2 older ones, they had no idea all those eggs were behind them, they didn't even notice when they walked down the stairs. Sneaky Rabbit!
Porter opened his after church since he was still asleep when the older kids woke up-he was super excited about everything, especially after he found out what was in the bag of animal crackers!

The kids each got a personalized chocolate egg from their Grandma Mona in the mail-they love getting mail, especially when it tastes this good!

And seriously so sad- Chad has been working so hard this weekend, with no sleep that today when he came home, he was too tired to start getting ready for church and too tired to even watch the kids find their Easter surprises (he was at work when the Easter bunny came too). This is where I found him a few minutes after he got home. Curled up and passed out in front of the heater vent in the hall. Poor guy!

Backyard Basket heads

We hosted an Easter egg hunt in our backyard, since you couldn't ask for a better place for one. We had everyone bring at least a dozen filled eggs, and then we threw them and hid them all over the yard and let them go crazy! It was lots better than going to any of the town hunts, less mayhem and less yucky jelly beans!
We had a good turnout of probably between 20 and 30 kids-we will definately have to make this a yearly tradition!

Christopher had Oreo's before the hunt and then ate most of the candy he collected, I'm assuming he will have a mouth full of cavities-and you can rightly assume that he has not stopped climbing the walls since!

Then there is my responsible little princess-she is so a mini me! She is all about saving her candy and only eating a little bit at a time, because she doesn't want to get a tummy ache. No complaints here!

Some-Bunny is so cute!

My friend Amy made this for me-and I LOVE it! Such cute little details like sparkly blue eyes and cute little freckles...Thanks Amy you rock!

Whatever Dude!

I took these pictures a couple days ago-this kid is now 9 months old-all over the place crazy; crawling, cruising along furniture, getting into cupboards, drawers and anything else, he's clapping and today he said his first word. He is a stink pot! It is very obvious that he prefers me to anyone and anything in this world. Ask anyone who knows him they'll tell you how it is! He follows me wherever I go like a little puppy, cries when I leave the room, lights up and goes crazy when I walk into a room. I mean this kid worships me right?

So today we are sitting around the table eating Easter dinner and he starts babbling, I try to persuade him to turn the babbles into mama, and then dad pipes in. He looks at his dad and says, "dadadadada", then he makes a face somewhat like this at me...

I swear the kid knows what he is doing! He looks at his dad again and says it again! DRAT! My other 2 kids said mama first, I was hoping for a clean sweep on that one! He hasn't stopped saying it now, and I tell him to stop it, but he just laughs at me. I can't believe he is in cahoots with his old man. Chad of course is loving it, and gloating about it-guess who is on stinky butt duty tonight for the baby? Just ask Porter he'll tell you-"Who do you want to change your bum?" "Dadadadada!"

Ballerina Bells

I won this adorable tutu from Ballerina Bells from this fun blog, and Bekah, I think would like to permanently be attached to it!
Bekah got to pick out whatever one she wanted from their site, and choose the colors, she was in absolute heaven!She is constantly in front of the mirror looking this way and that way at her 'beautiful ballerina' self.
She has changed her clothes umpteen times to see how her 'beautiful butterfly'-(oh excuse me! I just asked Bekah what her tutu was called again and she said in her most duh mom, matter of fact voice-"ummm-butterfly beauty." make sure when you read that-you say it with all the attitude you can muster), tutu looks with different things. I don't blame her it is pretty dang adorable!

I have a feeling there will be more than one of these-"mom will you take my pictures today in my beautiful tutu" photo shoots!

And these boots-she has been wearing them for 3 years now! They were huge when she first got them from her cousin, but she loved them-I am sad to know that this will be the last spring she will jump in puddles with them, when I think of Bekah-in my mind she is always wearing her pink and yellow rain boots, hopefully I can find an equally memorable pair to replace them!

Super Size!

Super Sized Photo Answers:

• I am aware that my horizontal pictures get cut off on a lot of your monitors because I have started posting them so big.
• I fixed them on a couple of posts, but it takes too much time-so for the previous posts with cut off pictures, you'll have to click on them individually to see them if you want to.
• To get them so big-I put them in photobucket.com and then take the URL for them for those that have asked about that.
• I have a huge monitor-so if I don't do them big, my pictures look so small on my screen, which is why I changed in the first place, I didn't know it was going to be such a huge problem for some of you, so I'm sorry! :)
• From now on I will trim them down a bit, but come on! I think everyone should just get a bigger monitor! Economy Shmonomy! :)

Sweet and Cuddly? Not so much.

I had this idea in my head of taking a really sweet picture of my sweet cuddly little guy for his 3 year old picture that I need to get in the frame.
I really wanted to take them yesterday when it was overcast but still warm-the lighting would have been ideal-but life happened and the pictures did not.
So we went out today-he wanted to sit in the tree-he did not want to smile-he wanted to "just sit here in the tree mom-no smiles!"
Then I had him stand by the fence-he was willing to smile and laugh-just not while looking at me...

Out of nearly 100 pictures-this was the closest thing I got to what I was looking for, and it is not what I wanted at all-he was just not willing today.

I will have to try again another day...

...Because the other 97 or so pictures looked more like this!
Then, Bekah wanted me to take one of her as well.

Of course this is what I get from her.

First try.

Straight out of the camera.

Such a difference in personality these two-I guess that's why they get along so well.

And why I can love them both exactly the same amount but for completely different reasons!